Scotty got up to refill his milk glass. It had taken a couple of weeks for him to feel comfortable helping himself to anything in their home, including the contents of the fridge, so it pleased her to see him pouring his own milk.

Sam took a delicious bite of the coveted pizza and wiggled a finger at Nick to bring him close enough to whisper in his ear. “You don’t have to charm me with pizza. I’m a sure thing where you’re concerned.”

His smile was positively sinful and left no doubt that if Scotty wasn’t there, they probably would’ve made good use of the kitchen floor. It had happened before—more than once.

Suddenly, a couple of hours seemed like a really long time.

After dinner, Scotty suggested a game of video baseball, which Nick happily agreed to. Sam followed them into the study and took advantage of the opportunity to check her email. While she was sitting at Nick’s immaculately appointed desk, she eyed the perfectly aligned frames that contained photos from their wedding, Scotty’s most recent school picture and one of Sam and her dad that Nick had once told her he loved.

With a glance over her shoulder to ensure he was fully occupied with the game, she set out to turn each of the frames upside down. When one of them wouldn’t stand upright in the new position, she rested it on its side. Then she got up and moved to the sofa to plow through the restraining orders relating to the Feds.

Almost every one of the marquee players had at least three of them attached to their name. All of the subjects were women, with the exception of Willie’s brother-in-law. Out of curiosity, Sam read some of the complaints against the women and was appalled by lengths some of them went to while attempting to snag the attention of a big-time ballplayer. One of them had draped herself naked across the hood of Cecil Mulroney’s car three times before he took action.

Another had befriended the mother of Ramon Perez hoping to gain access to him.

She read through the complaint Willie had filed regarding his brother-in-law Marco, who had threatened him physically after Willie refused to loan him the money he needed to pay off debts with dangerous people in the Dominican Republic. As she read, her vision swam and the words on the page became scrambled the way they did when she was tired and her dyslexia kicked in. A sure sign it was time to quit working.

Nick let out a shout and then a ringing laugh as one of Scotty’s players hit a grand slam.

“That is totally unfair!” Nick said. “You cheated!”

Scotty gave him an arch look. “How do you figure?”

“You’re better at this than I am. You know stuff I don’t know.”

“Don’t be a bad sport.”